Upendra Singh, who lives with his brother Lallan Singh and his family in Ratepur, is a habitual drinker and mentally unsound. He yesterday took his nephew to the bank of a river in the village where he decapitated the toddler with a shovel, SP (rural) Surendra Tiwari said.
He then buried the body in a nearby field, he said.
When he returned home in an inebriated state, he told his relatives and villagers that he "sacrificed" the baby, Tiwari said.
